Jeff Bezos gives all Kindle Fire owners 500 Amazon Coins

Back in February Amazon announced that it was introducing a brand new virtual currency for US customers called Amazon Coins. At the time, the company promised to give out “tens of millions of dollars worth” of Coins when they eventually launched in May. Well, it’s May, and Jeff Bezos has delivered on that promise.

If you visit Amazon.com today you will see a message on the homepage from Jeff Bezos. It states that anyone who owns a Kindle Fire has just been gifted 500 Amazon Coins. That amounts to a $5 value.

Amazon said it was introducing Coins so consumers have another way to pay for apps, games, and in-app items, while developers have a new way to generate revenue while retaining their 70 percent cut of each sale. There’s also no discrepancy and therefore confusion for consumers as each Amazon Coin is worth a penny.

For consumers, the biggest advantage seems to be not having to use a credit card every time you make a purchase on your Kindle Fire, as you can instead load your account up with Coins. That should work well for parents who want to let their kids purchase stuff through Amazon, but at the same time want to limit that spend.

With any new digital currency, you have to get people using it and used to it. Offering $5 worth of Coins for free is probably the best way to do that, and some popular app developers will surely experience a nice revenue spike over the next few weeks as the Coins get spent.